The Desk

The Desk — Edition 88

Welcome to the 88th issue of the Desk. The Desk is my weekly newsletter covering newly published content and project updates.

Brandon Himpfen

16 Feb 2026 — 6 min read

Photo by Patrick Ward / Unsplash

Welcome to the 88th issue of The Desk — my weekly roundup of newly published content and project updates. Whether you’re following along for tutorials, blog posts, GitHub projects, or curated reads, there’s something for everyone building or exploring in tech, content, and open source spaces.

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📝 New Blog Posts

In case you missed last week's The Desk edition:

Here is last week's posts from my blog:

Awesome Travel: From Resources to a Dedicated Ecosystem - An analytical look at how travel resources evolve into a sustainable ecosystem, exploring curation, incentives, and long-term structure in travel knowledge.
Why Consistency Matters More Than Frequency in Publishing - An analytical look at why consistency matters more than frequency in publishing, exploring incentives, reader expectations, sustainability, and long-term credibility.
Introducing Data & Analytics as a First-Class Category in Awesome Lists: An analytical explanation of why Data & Analytics is being introduced as a first-class category in Awesome Lists, and what this shift reveals about modern systems, governance, and long-term knowledge infrastructure.

Digital Marketing

Recent analysis and reporting from Bold Outlook, covering search, platforms, and AI in digital systems:

The Difference Between Innovation and Implementation - An analytical examination of the structural differences between innovation and implementation in technology, and why sustainable digital progress depends on both novelty and operational discipline.

Travel Intelligence

New work from Brandon Travel, focused on how travel systems, constraints, and incentives actually function:

The Solo-Friendly Itinerary Template I Use for Any City - An analytical look at the solo-friendly itinerary template I use to understand any city through pricing, infrastructure, regulation, and risk. A framework for reading travel systems before planning activities.

Travel Blogging

Recent articles from Travel Bloggers Network, exploring sustainable growth, structure, and long-term publishing strategy:

What Makes a Travel Blog Trustworthy in 2026 - What makes a travel blog trustworthy in 2026? A practical look at credibility, transparency, accuracy, and long-term thinking for serious travel bloggers.

Solo Travel

New posts from Solo Traveler, centered on solo-first travel realities, safety, and independent decision-making:

Introducing The Waypoint - A new bi-weekly newsletter from Solo Traveler. The Waypoint offers calm, curated summaries of new articles, updated guides, tools, and ecosystem changes — designed to help solo travelers stay oriented without inbox overload.
How to Create the Perfect Solo Travel Itinerary - Learn how to create a thoughtful solo travel itinerary that balances safety, flexibility, budget awareness, and personal comfort. Practical guidance for planning independent travel with confidence and care.

Solo Travel Society

Community-driven reflections and analysis from Solo Travel Society, grounded in lived experience and shared insight:

The Subtle Skills Solo Travel Builds Over Time - A reflective exploration of the subtle emotional and psychological skills solo travel builds over time, including self-trust, resilience, emotional regulation, and quiet confidence.

Miscellaneous

New posts from other managed and owned digital properties:

What Makes an Awesome List Actually Useful - A framework for evaluating curated awesome lists: scope, structure, standards, maintenance, and context. What separates signal from noise in open-source discovery.
Welcome to Brandon Himpfen Media - Brandon Himpfen Media is an independent media studio focused on building durable digital properties.

LinkedIn Newsletters

Last week’s issues from my LinkedIn-hosted newsletters, covering crypto, AI, and digital marketing:

AI Weekly — Issue 7 - This week underscored how quickly AI is shifting from experimentation to infrastructure.
Crypto & FinTech Weekly — Issue 7 - This week highlighted how quickly finance, payments, and crypto infrastructure are shifting from experimentation to execution.
Open Source Weekly — Issue 4 - This week’s reading highlights a recurring tension in modern tooling: convenience versus control.
Digital Marketing Weekly — Issue 8 - This week highlighted a clear shift in how reach, discovery, and value are earned.

🚀 New Projects and Initiatives

This week I also pushed forward on a few new projects and initiatives. These are early-stage launches, new reference hubs, or first public versions that expand the broader content and open source systems I’m building across tech, travel, and publishing.

MartialArtsPedia - A preservation-first martial arts reference library.

🌱 Project Updates

This section tracks ongoing work across my projects. Some updates are small and structural, others are visible improvements but all of them reflect where time and attention went this week as the broader system continues to take shape over time.

Both Bold Outlook Pages and Tools mini sites got a slight UI update.

🤝 Community Updates

A few updates from the communities I’m building and supporting, including new spaces to connect, contribute and collaborate.

New LinkedIn Groups

Newsletter Operators & Independent Media is for people who operate newsletters and independent media businesses.
Applied AI & Automation is a professional community focused on the practical implementation of AI systems, automation workflows, and responsible deployment in real-world environments.

New Code Snippets

As mentioned last week, I'm aiming to publish, on average, two code snippets per week. Here are this past weeks code snippets:

bash-retry.sh - Bash retry helper to retry a command N times with delay and optional exponential backoff (strict-mode friendly).
bash-retry-with-jitter.sh - Bash retry helper with exponential backoff + random jitter (useful for distributed systems and flaky network calls).